Twenty seven IAML conferences ...

Episode 1: 1989-2000

I have attended numerous IAML conferences over the years since 1989. The following entries are very much personal memories and as such they often relate more to the location and to peripheral or social activities than to the conference itself. I hope they might trigger fond memories for those who were also fortunate enough to attend the same conferences.

Quite some years ago, thanks I think to our former President Pam Thompson, the initials IAML acquired an additional unofficial meaning: the International Association of Marvellous Locations. Do bear that in mind if you read further.

Without IAML (and for many of these, the generous support of my former employer – the British Library) I would probably not have been to many of these places. For anyone new to IAML, my advice is always to keep trying because the more IAML conferences that you are able to attend, the more it comes to feel like an extended worldwide family.

You can find the programme details for any of these conferences by heading to the IAML Congresses page, select the conference and follow the link to see a digitized copy of the conference brochure.

I must add here that there is no implied criticism of any past conference organizers in any of my comments. Having been involved in the organization of two of these conferences I know only too well that things can go wrong despite the best efforts of organizers. Murphy's Law: "What can go wrong will go wrong" inevitably applies to such undertakings.

Terminology: To avoid any confusion I'm using the term conference consistently throughout. Earlier conferences – every three years – were designated as congresses and in recent years all have been officially congresses.

1989 Oxford (UK)

My first conference was UK-based so it was easier to pitch for funding. It was a joint IAML/IASA conference, which probably also helped since my manager at that time was involved with IASA and was also attending. Though the organizational sessions like the Council and General Assembly seemed rather less relevant to me at the time I went along anyway to see how things worked.

Accommodation was in student rooms at Queen's College, Oxford, and at that time some of them at least were rather basic. From my room a descent of two flights of stairs to the basement was needed access to toilet and shower facilities. Some of the more seasoned attendees apparently registered complaints about the state of the accommodation including failed lights in antiquated stairwells.

The final dinner took place in a marquee – a large tent. It was only much later that I heard that the (then) UK Branch had taken on the hosting at quite a late stage after another Branch had been unable to proceed with its offer. That maybe also accounts for the unusually late timing at the start of September.

1992 Frankfurt am Main (Germany)

This was my first actual international conference. I took the 'boat train' from London and boarded a ferry to Hoek van Holland. I still remember a long and cold early morning wait for a train from there to Köln then another train to Frankfurt am Main. The adventure of international rail travel was at that time quite new to me.

Of the conference I remember little apart from the seemingly interminable welcome speeches at the opening ceremony but we were all rewarded later with plentiful excellent food and drink in the basement of the Rathaus.

The idea of Wednesday tours was also new to me. There was to be a visit to Schott in Mainz or another to Breitkopf & Härtel in Wiesbaden. Boldly (for me) I decided instead to take a train to visit Heidelberg. This proved quite a good choice at least in terms of weather since I had good weather all day while both organized trips had lots of rain.

I remember turning up to a concert at the Frankfurt Oper and not being able to attend. That was a learning experience since I'd not realized that the presence of a concert in the social programme does't confer an automatic right of attendance but has to be booked through the conference application form.

The closing dinner was I think to be held aboard a boat on the river but I had chosen anyway not to book a place. I was fortunate instead to be able to attend two John Cage concerts together with a new friend from Germany whom I had met at the conference. The concerts were part of a series that had been planned to celebrate Cage's 80th birthday. Since he had died just weeks beforehand it became instead a commemorative series.

1993 Helsinki (Finland)

This conference was entirely self-financed since I thought it was most unlikely that I would get support for a second year in succession. As a lifelong Sibelius enthusiast I could not pass up an opportunity to visit Helsinki.

I flew from London, taking my Brompton folding bicycle with me with tyres deflated for flight. Arriving on the airport coach from Vantaa in the centre of Helsinki around midnight, my first challenge was to inflate the tyres with a tiny and rather ineffective pump. The next challenge was to spot the street name signs that were rather higher up and smaller than I expected. Fortunately there was almost no traffic at that time which helped with the remaining challenge: riding on the 'wrong' side of the road, on a cobbled surface while avoiding tram lines.

Good street lighting helped me eventually to find my way to Eurohostel where I was booked to stay. The bike came in very useful as the week went on and I soon got used to the cobbled surfaces and found my directions.

 

A memorable evening concert took place in the stunning space of Temppeliaukion kirkko (the Church in the Rock) with a programme of Magnus Lindberg and Sibelius.

The Wednesday tour took us first to Sibelius's home 'Ainola', which is set in woodland at the edge of Lake Tuusulanjärvi in Järvenpää to the north of Helsinki. There was time to look around inside the house as well wandering in the immediate woodland.

 

After that the tour moved on to the coastal city of Porvoo, whose old town is known for preserved 18th and 19th century building as well as a 15th century cathedral.

 

 

I found time to cycle to the Sibelius Park to see the Sibelius monument, and on another day I joined another conference attendee to visit the Seurasaari open air museum of heritage buildings.

There was an evening reception held in Alvar Aalto's famous Finlandia Hall. It was at this conference that I first met our current President, Pia Shekhter who helpfully recommended some CDs to me of music by Magnus Lindberg and by Kaija Saariaho which I bought and returned home with.

1994 Ottawa (Canada)

Not attended – no chance of funding so I didn't even try.

1995 Helsingør (Denmark)

The sessions and much of the accommodation were hosted at LO-Skolen. To minimize costs I had decided to stay at the youth hostel in the town. Having arrived in the early afternoon I found there was no way to book in, but after much hanging around and waiting I finally got to register. The only room available then turned out to be a small outbuilding which did not suit me at all. I stayed just for that night before finding a Bed & Breakfast room through the local tourist office.

From there the quickest and easiest access to LO-Skolen turned out to be across the fields at the top of the ridge which gave me a fine view over Helsingør below and across the Øresund/Öresund strait to Helsingborg on the Swedish side.

 

 

Another evening found us all transported to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art where we were treated to an entertaining concert of marimba arrangements of J.S. Bach and others by the Safri Duo. They then tried to get different sections of the audience to take part in a large scale performance of Steve Reich's Clapping Music ... before showing us how it really should be done.

The organizers had wisely decided to provide IAML Helsingør umbrellas as part of the conference pack – I still have mine. That turned out to be especially useful for the Wednesday afternoon tour when we were all transported into Copenhagen on a specially chartered train. On arrival in Copenhagen it was raining quite heavily so I spent quite a large part of the afternoon chatting with two of the conference organizers at a microbrewery near the Tivoli Gardens. In the evening there was a concert in the Tivoli Konsertsalen with music by Carl Nielsen and Niels Gade – see programme for details, then after a while it was back to the microbrewery with a colleague. At Tivoli closing time we all watched as 'IAML' was illuminated in fireworks above the Konsertsalen before catching our train back to Helsingør.

The closing dinner on Friday took place at LO-skolen, and since it was at the time of midsummer, following the dinner we all gathered around a large bonfire in the grounds with folksongs that had been learned by some of the attendees during the week, before going back inside for the final jazz entertainment.

1996 Perugia (Italy)

Not attended – it still seemed that trying to go each year was not possible.

1997 Geneva / Genève (Switzerland)

 

This one turned out to be the first of an almost continuous run of conferences right up to the present day. After flying into Geneva I was pleased to find that the journey to and from my accommodation at the Cité Universitaire was by tram – a new experience for someone from the benighted UK where trams had been largely abandoned decades before in favour of the motor car. I skipped the Wednesday afternoon tour in favour of exploring the old town by myself.

 

 

On the Friday morning I decided to skip sessions to visit the CERN Microcosm Exhibition Centre. CERN is the enormous circular underground nuclear particle accelerator. I felt it would have been a wasted opportunity to visit Geneva without trying to visit such an important place. Apart from the particle physics we should not forget that CERN was where the world wide web was born.

1998 Donostia/San Sebastián (Spain)

After taking a Eurostar train from London to Paris, Gare du Nord I walked across Paris to Gare Austerlitz to catch an overnight (non-sleeper) train to the border at Hendaye/Irun and then on to Donostia/San Sebastián, arriving very early on the Sunday morning. As I left the train the only other person on the platform turned out to be also for the IAML conference. That was the first time that I met our current Vice President, Anna Pensaert.

 

During the week there was a concert of modern Spanish music that was in my case memorable for the wrong reasons: it was for saxophones – my least favourite instrument – with electronics. Although I listened to a lot of avant garde music, adding multiple saxophones to electronics was just not going to work for me. A concert of music by Tomás Luis de Victoria on another evening was much better appreciated.

 

The Wednesday tour took us by coach to the architecturally striking Guggenheim Gallery in Bilbao. The gallery itself I found rather more interesting than some of its contents, and the giant floral doggy outside was fun.

The closing dinner was held in a restaurant high above the town with a fine view across the bay.

I stayed over to Saturday to attend a scheduled day meeting for participants in the EU HARMONICA project for which I worked on two surveys.

The following morning, to return to Hendaye for the TGV return train to Paris I used the Euskotren service known locally as 'El Topo' (The mole) because of the multiple tunnels it passes through on its journey.

1999 Wellington (New Zealand)

Alas, there would clearly be no chance of getting to New Zealand by train. The flight from London Heathrow via Kuala Lumpur had four hours or so of stopover before the onward flight to Auckland and then another short flight to Wellington.

 

 

Delays meant that I was rather late arriving at my excellent Bed & Breakfast but I did still manage to get to the opening ceremony in reasonable time, where arrivals received a traditional Māori nose greeting.

I saw quite a few rather jet-lagged individuals over the next day or two so I was happy that my homeopathic jetlag remedies had stood me in good stead and I had remarkably few problems.

During one session I made a presentation of the British Library Sound Archive's new online catalogue CADENSA – now SAMI. Using a remote telnet connection in those days was a bit a leap of faith and the time difference meant there was no prospect of assistance from London in the event of any problems. To my relief it actually worked smoothly.

As Secretary of the AV Commission, I suddenly found myself having to take over as Chair for AV sessions when at a very late stage the Chair himself was unable to come to Wellington. The following year I was elected as Chair so I suppose it was good practice.

The Wednesday tour took us by coach along the Kapiti Coast to a farm and to Ngā Manu nature reserve. Bear in mind that this was in late July, so it was in the middle of the NZ winter. However, it was not cold, and just a bit wet and windy at times.

For the entire week there seemed to be one regular evening gathering place to eat in the harbour area called Shed 5 – the enormous green-lipped mussels on the menu were memorable.

The post-conference tour took around sixteen of us to Martinborough vineyards, returning each with a couple of bottles to pack for home.

2000 Edinburgh (Scotland, UK)

This is where life got decidedly busy. I had been appointed as Technical Co-ordinator on the Organizing Committee that was chaired by UK Branch's Immediate Past-President Roger Taylor. Accommodation was provided at the University of Edinburgh's Pollock Halls, a short walk from George Square in central Edinburgh where sessions would take place.

On the Friday, before any arrivals, I joined others in the time-honoured ritual of bag-stuffing and other general pre-conference admin. This had turned out to be a popular conference with around 400 registered attendees.

Saturday was largely a free day so I had a chance to wander around Edinburgh, then on Sunday afternoon as people started to arrive I managed to escape for an hour or two to climb the nearby ancient volcano known as Arthur's Seat for an excellent view of the city.

 

The opening ceremony on Sunday evening was hosted at the Playfair Library by the conference patron, composer Peter Maxwell Davies. Alas, I missed that entirely while helping a colleague at Appleton Tower in George Square who was having trouble setting up some of the exhibition stands for the following day. I did manage though to get back to Pollock Halls in time for the social part of the evening: a ceilidh – a Gaelic folk-dancing session with a caller. Our genial host was of course Roger Taylor (affectionately termed McRog for this occasion). Great fun was had by all.

 

Monday morning was a distinct shock to the system: with Roger in his car we drove to a PC rental shop as soon as it opened to collect the hired PCs for the week and to get them into the lecture theatres at Appleton Tower.

The opening plenary session was to be delivered by Peter Maxwell Davies, but alas I didn't hear a word of it. I was in the next door lecture theatre desperately trying to persuade the rented PC to connect to the internet in time for the second session. Even with the help of IT support colleagues back at the British Library in London to test the line, it still refused to connect so unfortunately sessions in that theatre unfortunately had to make do without an internet connection for all of that day. The following day the problem was fixed by a surly university tech support guy who found that a previous user had squashed an ethernet cable – remember those? – in a closed cupboard door.

After that the week seemed to rush by. My Wednesday tour took us by coach to Stirling Castle. The coach drove up to a parking area around halfway up the hill then took what seemed like forever to park. Visibility that day with fog and some rain was so poor that the Wallace Monument was barely visible from the castle. After what seemed an all too brief visit we were bundled back to the coach for a trip to the rather disappointing Battle of Bannockburn Museum.

An evening concert in St Giles Cathedral celebrated the music of Robert Carver (or Carvor), the 16th century Scottish composer. That concert was sponsored by Macmillan to help celebrate the launch of the New Grove Encyclopedia of Music – how the years have rushed by.

Friday arrived, at which point perhaps we might have relaxed slightly but ... we had to start dismantling things and return the PCs to the hire shop while everyone else made their way to the McEwan Hall for an 'Organ Flourish' that was scheduled to precede the Closing Session. Roger was desperate to get there in time to hear the organ, and we just about managed it in time.

Earlier in the week Jim Cassaro, then Chair of Cataloguing Commission, had made reference to a mythical(?) Sœur Angélique. To everyone's surprise a mysterious figure in a monk's habit walked slowly across the front of the proceedings during the session. Was this actually Sœur Angélique? As to the true identity of the interloper, my lips remain firmly sealed though I can confirm that it was not me.

One highlight of the week was a small-scale and exclusive multi-evening whisky tour. Two of our Latvian attendees were disappointed at having been unable to register for the official whisky tasting tour. At the end of each evening, with Zdravko Blažeković of RILM making up a foursome, we visited a pub near to Pollock Halls to try out four different single malts – each one was passed around for sampling by the others. Then on the last evening we picked our four favourites from earlier days. I suspect this was much more fun than the official whisky experience.

Due to quite late changes, the closing dinner was held offsite at a rather soulless venue that required coach travel across Edinburgh. It was also memorable for when someone went outside for a smoke and set off the alarms which took quite a while to get silenced.

All photographs © Antony Gordon. Used with permission.